The Final Boss Has Returned 17

Chapter 17

[Faction Members: 6]

[Leader: Khalid (Level 463/NPC)]

[Loyalty: 100/100]

[Funds: 1000 Gold]

[Currently under surveillance and suppression by Lawless Port!]

[Faction members’ activities outside Argan Village are restricted.]

[Faction expansion is restricted.]

The reason I frowned after checking the additional window was simple.

I had a rough idea of what the Black Ring Society’s situation would be like based on the information I had gathered beforehand, but the situation was more serious than I thought.

‘Isn’t this a complete case of all that glitters is not gold?’

Surveillance and suppression by Lawless Port!

Faction expansion restricted!

Moreover, the outdoor activities of Khalid, a high-level NPC over level 400, and the black magicians, who had finally come into my hands, were also impossible!

It was literally a picture-perfect example of something unattainable!

“Now that I’ve received your oath of loyalty, let me ask you a question. What’s this about being under surveillance by Lawless Port?”

The situation of the Black Ring Society was more serious than I had anticipated based on the information I had gathered.

In response to my question, prompted by that situation, Khalid cleared his throat and began to speak.

“That’s a story from about ten years ago.”

The moment Khalid’s story began, an image appeared in my vision.

Lawless Port Granado!

In the video, a street battle was unfolding in a huge city with the surging sea as a backdrop.

A terrifying confrontation between pirates wielding guns and swords and black magicians hurling black magic!

Explosions and smoke billowed from all over the city.

And at the forefront of it all was he.

A young man with an eyepatch over his left eye, Pirate King Drake!

With a cutlass in one hand and a pistol in the other, Drake flashed from east to west, wielding his aura-infused cutlass and firing his pistol, mercilessly slaughtering the black magicians.

The street battle ended in victory for the pirates.

Drake, standing atop the corpses of the black magicians, shouted loudly in the blood-soaked plaza of Granado.

[Lawless Port Granado now falls under the rule of me, Pirate King Drake.]

[The Black Ring Society, those disgusting black magicians! You dared to refuse my generous surrender terms! For that crime, I will take all your lives!]

Thus, Granado fell into the hands of the Pirate King, and as he returned to his base in the Pirate Archipelago, he appointed his subordinate as the lord of Granado and developed the city into a port.

“Granado has been the home of our Black Ring Society for over a thousand years. We could not simply hand over Granado to that scoundrel of a Pirate King. So, when he appeared in the waters off Granado with his fleet and sent a messenger to offer humiliating terms of surrender, we resolved to fight to the death, and the result, as you can see, is this.”

As soon as Khalid finished speaking, the image disappeared.

“But now that the Contractor has personally arrived, having received the Dark God’s command, it is time to take revenge on those lawless pirates for the bloodshed of ten years ago!”

[A quest has occurred!]

[The Revival of the Black Ring Society]

[Rank: Legend]

[The master of Lawless Port and the Pirate Archipelago, the Lion of the Blue Waves, the Conqueror of the Eastern Sea. Pirate King Drake!]

[Ten years ago, the Pirate King’s greed for Granado, which had become a coastal city in the aftermath of the Great Cataclysm, finally led to a conflict with the Black Ring Society.]

[At the end of the battle for the fate of Lawless Port, the Black Ring Society lost its former glory and was utterly destroyed. The six black magicians who barely survived the Pirate King’s hand have been living in hiding as villagers in Argan Village.]

[You are the Dark God’s Contractor, who has appeared after 2,000 years.]

[Lead them to reclaim Lawless Port, which has fallen into the hands of the pirates, break the arrogant Pirate King’s nose, and let the entire continent know that the Black Ring Society has been revived.]

[Completion Conditions]

[Occupy Lawless Port Granado]

The content of the quest that appeared was shocking.

‘Is this even a possible difficulty level?’

It was to the point where even I, who had experienced all sorts of battles on land, air, and sea, was speechless.

Occupy Lawless Port Granado!

In other words, take me and six black magicians and wage war against a huge city called Lawless Port and win.

This was impossible.

Perhaps it would have been possible for me six years ago, when I had climbed to the position of leader of the Iron Blood Alliance, commanding countless users and NPCs, but for me now, with nothing but my own body in the game, it was an impossible difficulty level.

Even though it was a chain quest, such a sudden jump to an insane difficulty level in the second stage was a first in my gaming life, which had seen all sorts of strange things.

[Quest cannot be refused.]

[Quest accepted.]

What was even more absurd was that I wasn’t even given the option to refuse this quest.

[The Dark God smiles as he watches you.]

[The Dark God sponsors 1000 points.]

With the Dark God’s message, I logged out on the spot.

I had to find a way, a way to clear the quest.

▄ ▄ ▄

The Revival of the Black Ring Society!

The quest that was practically telling me to commit suicide by taking six black magicians and waging war against Lawless Port.

As soon as I logged out of the capsule and told Team Leader Lee about the ridiculous quest, his face hardened, and he made a phone call.

And when the person Team Leader Lee had called finally arrived at the conference room at the top of the Content Hub building, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

“It’s been a while, Drakan-nim.”

A beautiful woman with neatly cut dark blue hair and a graceful impression, the very person who recruited me to Jeil E&M.

Executive Director Shin Ha-yeon, the third-generation chaebol heiress of the Jeil Group, had personally appeared here.

The moment Shin Ha-yeon appeared in the conference room, a heavy silence fell over the dedicated support team, including Team Leader Lee.

Shin Ha-yeon looked around the conference room with a bright smile.

“To think you’d bring such a visible achievement as a Legendary quest so quickly after signing the contract, it seems that the contract with Drakan-nim was indeed a wise choice.”

“That’s not important right now, the solution is.”

The quest I received was indeed a large-scale quest.

The problem was that I couldn’t see a way to clear that large quest.

No matter how much my level had risen, it was only in the early 100s.

With such a low level and no guild backup, it was common sense and objectively impossible to win a war against a large city with only six black magicians, no matter how high their level.

Seeing my serious expression, Shin Ha-yeon smiled.

“Why are you worrying about that?”

“You’re not joking with me right now, are you?”

I furrowed my brow.

Because I couldn’t understand Shin Ha-yeon’s behavior.

I had received a quest with a ridiculous objective, and yet she was so relaxed.

Seeing my expression, Shin Ha-yeon smiled faintly.

“Don’t forget.”

Shin Ha-yeon’s smile deepened as she looked at my face.

“The fact that I’m always by your side.”

Shin Ha-yeon took a step closer to me.

“And that means the Jeil Group is always behind you.”

The moment Shin Ha-yeon said that, a shiver ran down my spine.

The Jeil Group is behind me!

I began to realize the power of a chaebol conglomerate, which I had slightly forgotten about.

Chaebol, the power holders and vested interests of the real world!

The fact that they were behind me meant that I could borrow their almost limitless real-world power.

“Rankers? Named players? Large guilds? Media play? Items? Broadcasting? Tell me anything you need.”

Shin Ha-yeon came close to me and whispered in my ear in a sweet voice.

“Whatever your request, it will all be fulfilled as you wish.”

Everything will be fulfilled as I wish.

It might sound like something out of a fairy tale, but Shin Ha-yeon’s expression was filled with nothing but genuine sincerity.

Looking at Shin Ha-yeon, I thought.

‘I was still thinking wrong!’

That’s right.

I was thinking wrong.

Even though times had changed, I was still stuck in the old playstyle of six years ago.

Since it’s a quest in the game, it has to be solved in the game!

Such thoughts had been dominating my mind.

The idea of using real-world power to clear a quest in the game was a foreign concept to me.

Six years ago, the concept of management didn’t even exist, and the most you could do was send gameplay videos to cable TV stations or upload screenshots to the Ard forum.

There were hardly any cases of directly bringing external means into the game to solve quests in this way.

The way to solve large-scale quests back then was to mobilize your in-game connections and influence, such as guilds, allies, NPCs, and friendly factions, to gather people and solve them.

The only exception was when I borrowed money in real life and poured it into the game because of the Overlord Quest.

But that was a truly exceptional case, and even that ended in failure.

Anyway, there were hardly any users who actively mobilized external means like real-world wealth and power to solve quests like now.

Ard Saga was a game that realized a perfect virtual reality, indistinguishable from reality, to the point of being called another world, but six years ago, Ard Saga was still a game.

And there was a tacit agreement to keep game matters within the game.

Even six years ago, there was interaction between the real world and the game world, such as the Ard forum and cable game broadcasts, but the two were explicitly separated.

Game matters in the game, real-life matters in real life.

That was common sense six years ago, and I was unconsciously thinking the same way.

So, it was natural for me to have such a prejudice.

But that preconception was shattered just a moment ago.

Shin Ha-yeon, she made me realize it.

Six years ago and now are different!

Unlike its predecessor, Ard Saga Second saw the emergence of the real-time internet broadcasting platform Ard Live, the revitalization of SNS, and the emergence of user management, which led to an unprecedented expansion of the market. As a result, the real world and the game world were interacting and influencing each other much more actively than six years ago.

And now, the real world and the game world were no longer two separate worlds, but one world that influenced each other.

Real-life matters could affect the game, and game matters could be solved using real-life means. That was the current era.

The unspoken rule of keeping game matters within the game had long been shattered!

I engraved that fact, the new rule that governs the present, into my mind.

Moreover, I have Shin Ha-yeon and the Jeil Group behind me.

No matter how impossible the quest, there’s a chance of winning if I use the power of the real world.

So, tell me what you want!

My heart, which had been pounding madly at the sight of the quest’s difficulty and content, calmed down, and my head, which had been burning hot, began to cool.

I laughed coldly.